Eighteen is the year when everything changes. It treats each of us differently, but collectively captures a range of defining moments. We graduate from the old and we move on to the new.
The impossible thing about being 18 is that the change creeps up on you. Things begin to turn over, one by one, and then suddenly all at once you’re looking at a whole new picture. It’s hard to wrap your head around. It’s hard to look back and point to that exact moment when everything became something else. What’s easier to point out is what you walked away from those pivotal moments with.
When you’re 18, you learn the most invaluable perspectives, and they sound a little something like this:
1. Not everyone is going to like you—no matter who you are—so you might as well be yourself.
2. More people, however, will like you if you’re simply a civil person. Smile. Say hello. Remember the names and faces of those you meet, even if others don’t.
3. Money absolutely does not grow on trees. Uber and Whole Foods will constantly remind you of that.
4. Don’t gossip or talk badly about others in public. It’s okay to vent to your best friend, but be mindful of who may be around.
5. Never, ever make fun of someone for being brave enough to do his or her own thing. It doesn’t make you funny. You’ll just come off as jealous, bitter, or insecure, and no one wants to be around that.
6. In fact, people want to be around other happy people.
7. Find what will make you that happy person, and never be ashamed of it.
8. Indulge in whatever makes you that happy person as much as possible.
9. Everyone has his or her own crap to deal with. Never tell someone that his or her problems aren’t as big of a deal as yours, and never let anyone make you feel like your problems don’t matter either.
10. Change will come whether you want it to or not. But if you really want it, and want it now, you have to go out and find it.
11. Go out as much as possible. Meet all the new people you can. But…
12. Know your limits. Know that sometimes a night in is necessary. Nobody wants to be associated with that guy or that girl who can’t handle his or her self.
13. Your real friends are the ones who will take care of you when you get like that anyways.
14. Bad people do exist. There are people who will only take from you, who will rip your heart out, crumple it up, toss it in the corner, and then walk away like nothing happened.
15. Every friendship, relationship, whatevership, should be a two-way street. If it’s not, let it go. Nobody is better than the wrong somebody.
16. It’s okay to hurt. But when you think it’s the end of the world, it’s not.
17. Time really does heal all wounds—maybe not fully, but always more than you thought possible.
18. Time also really does fly, and fly fast.
